Innovation in the Film Industry is Urgently Needed. Gruvi launches new Ebook “WINNING YOUR AUDIENCES”

Gruvi outlines largest upcoming trends facing the movie industry in the latest chapter of their acclaimed and shows why innovation in the film industry is so desperately needed in the latest version of their free e-book, ‘Winning Your Audiences’.

13 September 2017, Copenhagen, Denmark – Ben Johnson, CEO of technology based media agency Gruvi, has released the final chapter of their acclaimed ebook, ‘Winning Your Audiences’ a call for film industry innovation and change, which is now available to download free of charge.

and ever-increasing competition from other forms of media and entertainment.

Looking forward, the chapter predicts how these current challenges and disruptive strategies may develop and what new ones may emerge over the next 5 years:

Excerpts from ‘Winning Your Audiences’

Smashing The Box Office Windows“Negotiations will continue to shrink the window between the end of the theatrical run and home entertainment to 30 days, then 20 days and so on and so forth. Along the way, there will be a lot of casualties, hopefully the cultural significance of film will not be one of them.”

China: Hollywood’s Silver Bullet?“The future of Hollywood’s approach to China faces many questions and it looks like replicating the blockbuster model will continue to be fraught with risk. It is unlikely that China will be a panacea for the problems affecting the industry.”

The Rise of the Video On Demand Leviathan“A duopoly is not a democracy. The biases of the people who curate the experiences on these market-dominating services could dictate the shape of small-scale moviemaking for decades to come.”

Piracy and Its Impact“Today’s distribution and exhibition systems are inefficient at dealing with today’s audience demands, and the economic drivers and incentives for pirating are too powerful to be controlled by take-down orders and other punitive measures.”

The Blockchain in Film“Blockchain will reduce the noise and disruption of many of the transactional and legal responsibilities for rights management, licensing, and collecting and managing royalties, freeing up time for distributors and producers to spend more time finding and engaging their audiences.”

In 2015, Gruvi published Looking Past The Headlights: The Next 10 Years In The Entertainment Industry which was well received in the industry and by 2017 found many of its predictions coming true; the EU’s floating of the Digital Single Market, studios experiencing bigger hits and more disastrous flops and the growth of producers bypassing distributors to take more direct and creative routes to audiences.

Gruvi’s opinion is as follows

“The business of movies needs to innovate – and by business I mean specifically the processes of distribution. The process leads to marketing methodologies that are out of date with the way the audiences both learn about and engage with films, television shows, games and other forms of entertainment. Release windows are under increasing pressure and it is only a matter of time before they break. We should welcome and be ready for that.”

“New business paradigm brought by things like the rise of V.O.D. services, potential changes to distribution from the European Union and the ever present threat of piracy means that it’s time to look at overhauling the system of distribution and moving away from the archaic business practices. The key will be in improving the speed and transparency in rights management, content tracking as well as securing data from hackers. The final chapter of ‘Winning Your Audiences’ looks at the rise of Blockchain as a tool with the potential to solve many of the challenges faced by the entertainment industry.”

“We hope that ‘Winning Your Audiences’ sparks and contributes to the conversations to break the pattern of business as usual. Each year it gets harder to release a movie and make money from it. Our concern is at this rate the only buyers who will be left in the entertainment market will originate from Silicon Valley. Something that we feel will hurt the diversity and creativity of European film as well as the entire business of film globally.”

“Gruvi works with a range of independent and studio distributors and entertainment companies globally. Recognising the importance of data, we are currently working on a project to record and collect specific audiences for film, from both 1st party and 3rd party sources to further improve the results of engagement for our clients’ campaigns.”

“We take pride in what we do, are fascinated by the industry we work in and are inspired by the people we work with. Gruvi will continue to write and participate at major industry events and festivals and event to highlight the changes that we believe are necessary.”